Professor Burbage and the Great Do-Over
by DarkFireheartNinja
Summary: Muggle Studies Professor, Charity Burbage died in the summer of 1997 at the wand of You Know Who, surrounded by Death Eaters… only she opens her eyes in 1972, on the Hogwarts Express and on her first year of Hogwarts! -CURRENTLY BEING REWRITTEN AND THIS VERSION WILL BE REPLACED IN THE FUTURE-
1. What Manner of Afterlife Was This

**Professor Burbage and the Great Do-Over**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series, the characters of the series... or anything really.**

 **What Manner of Afterlife Was This?**

 _As the flash of green light, the Killing Curse, burned itself into her retinas, her body seized up, and then she knew no more._

 _Amid pin drop silence, the broken body of the Muggle Studies professor fell._

* * *

"Charity… Charity… Wake up, Charity!"

Professor Burbage's eyes snapped open. "Wha- what?!" she blearily stared around the compartment. The gentle vibration of the moving train seemed to lull her back to sleep. Then her eyes landed on a young girl wearing threadbare but clean deep blue robes seated across from her. She seemed terribly familiar but Charity for the life of her couldn't place her. Light brown skin and chin length blonde hair was all she could make out, as the girl was engrossed in pulling out a long black material from a battered trunk and her hair obscured her face. With a triumphant "hah!" she managed to free the material, and upon unfurling it Charity saw it was a Hogwarts robe, complete with green Slytherin badge. The robe was lowered and Charity finally saw the face of her companion.

Charity's chest grew tight, the oxygen refusing to enter her lungs no matter how hard she panted. "Fi – _Fideline?_ " she gasped, almost scaring herself with how high her voice went.

Charity _is_ dead… isn't she? The green light of the Aveda Kadevra was not something she was likely to forget. But if she was dead, why was she here? Why was her _sister_ here?

 _And where is_ here?

"Where are we?" she asked Fideline, and winced somewhat as the older girl grimaced as if her question was the stupidest thing she had ever heard.

"We're on the Hogwarts Express!" her sister exclaimed, waving a hand around the compartment. At Charity's bewildered expression she added, "The train to Hogwarts? You know, for your first year sorting and all?" Charity blinked. To the extent of her knowledge, which was becoming more and more unsure each second, Fideline had disowned her for wanting to continue her studies in the Muggle world and they had remained estranged for eighteen years. The rumors about what her sister got up to within the magical high society had been all Charity had to go on. She knew her sister had a son but they had never really met – he didn't seem the Muggle tolerant sort.

The girl looked up with the exasperated expression Charity knew so well and hadn't seen for years. "Come on Charity, what's wrong with you?"

Well, for starters, she had just been murdered and her _older_ sister right now looked no older than thirteen or fourteen years old! And she was younger, did that make Charity… ?

She slowly turned and for the first time took a close look at her reflection in the window.

Her jaw dropped. The reflection gaping back at her was definitely of her as an eleven year old.

Her black hair, unruly as Devil's Snare, stood up on end, making up for her short height, and she almost shuddered at the large circle shaped wire framed spectacles perched on her nose. The light brown skin and the chubby cheeks that for the longest time she had disliked while surrounded by the fairer waif-like girls in class. As an adult she had finally got around to buying a potion to fix her shortsightedness – only that potion had been – _will be_ – invented sometime after 1985. Slowly, she looked down herself and saw she was wearing the old light red robes that used to belong to her mother, then to Fideline, and now finally to Charity. She remembered feeling so embarrassed wearing this the first time around… _No way…_ Charity was reeling at the implications – she really was in the past?

 _Sweet Merlin, what manner of afterlife was this?!_

* * *

 **A/N**

 **I have always wanted to write a Harry Potter fanfic and now I finally did it! Charity Burbage had a very short scene in Deathly Hallows and there was virtually no information on what house she may have been in, what year she attended Hogwarts or even family (at least none that I've been able to find). So she's really the perfect character to create an entire backstory for. And hers is going to bend canon into a pretzel.**


	2. A Boy with Shiny Curly Dark Hair

**Professor Burbage and the Great Do-Over**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series, the characters of the series... or anything really.**

 **A/N** **Just a warning for modified lines from Pottermore's Slytherin prefect and that I have just tweaked this chapter a bit.**

* * *

 **A Boy with Shiny Curly Dark Hair**

" _I'll be in Narcissa's compartment," Fideline told her sister while she shrugged off her robes, revealing a white dress shirt over shorts. Just as quickly she pulled her Hogwarts robes on as if the Muggle outfit was offensive. "You'll be fine on your own, yeah?"_

 _The little girl in light red hand-me-down robes and too large glasses nodded mutely. She did not really want her sister to go but Fideline did not have to spend the entirety of the trip minding her sister if she didn't want to. "Don't forget to change into your uniform, we'll be there in a couple of hours probably," her sister warned her, before blowing a kiss and slipping out the compartment. Charity slumped back into the seat, resigned to spending her entire first train ride alone. Suddenly the door slid open and Charity jumped. Panic bubbled up as she stared at the stranger standing in the threshold of the compartment. A boy with shiny curly dark hair and a bored expression stared back._

 _Finally Charity's voice came back and she croaked, "Hello."_

 _The boy blinked and surprisingly gave her a cheeky smile. "Hello," he said. "Mind if I came in? I got chased out of the compartment I was in."_

" _S-sure, come in!"_

 _The boy graced her with a short nod before sliding into the seat across from her. The two sat in silence, awkwardly avoiding looking at each other. Then he cleared his throat. "My name is Regulus Black," he announced._

" _Cha-Charity. Charity Burbage," the girl replied and she smiled nervously. Something seemed to lift off Regulus Black's mind and he grinned. Then he pulled out a few packets of Chocolate Frogs and held out one to Charity._

" _Want a Frog?"_

* * *

"I'll be in Narcissa's compartment," Fideline told her while she shrugged off her robes, revealing a white dress shirt over shorts. Just as quickly she pulled her Hogwarts robes on. "You'll be fine on your own, yeah?"

Her Slytherin crest seemed to shine, mocking Charity with the memory of the huge snake that had coiled around her body and crushed her, right before a Levitation Charm cast by a horrified Draco Malfoy on his master's order lifted her up and irritated her injuries further. The pain had been bad, especially after the bout of hexes fired by the gathering. Bile tried to rise up her throat but she choked it back down. Fideline glanced at her, frowning.

"Did you have a bad dream, or something?" she asked.

 _Yes, there was a dirty great snake lounging on your bestie's dining table and a nasty snake man shot the Killing Curse at me!_

"Would… would you like me to stay with you?" Fideline's voice pierced through the fog that had clouded Charity's mind and she wanted nothing more at this moment than for her sister to stay with her.

"P-please stay," she choked out. _I don't want to be alone!_

One perfectly shaped eyebrow raised, Fideline stared back at her. After a long pause, during which Charity feared her sister will abandon her again, the blonde agreed to stay. They sat in uncomfortable silence, as Fideline fiddled with the hem of her robes and a persistent feeling that something was wrong filled Charity's heart. The sky outside grew darker.

"Why don't you tell me about your House?" she finally asked, just to break the uncomfortable silence. Fideline on the other hand, brightened up considerably.

"Ohhh, you're going to love it there! We're the coolest and edgiest house in Hogwarts. We look after our own, so if you play your cards right you'll be set for the next seven years and even beyond. We've certainly got more illustrious members of society from Slytherin than any other house. Did you know Merlin was in Slytherin?" Fideline stated proudly. Charity felt a surge of happiness at the smile she had not seen for so long. In fact, she hadn't seen her sister truly smile at her since her sorting, as she had seemed very disappointed to have a Hufflepuff sister.

Nervously, she asked, "What if I get sorted into another house?"

Fideline arched an eyebrow at the question, and looked thoughtfully at Charity. "Hmmm, I've never thought about it. You've always seemed rather cunning to me."

"Me? Cunning?"

Fideline gave an unladylike snort. "Well, you're not particularly smart, or especially brave, and the only time you've ever worked hard is when you were trying to con Mother into believing you've done your chores. And it takes a bit of cunning and maybe a bit of nerve to do that."

Charity started. If she was in the past, then Mother was still alive. Her Uncle Wufric too… in her first life, her uncle had left home sometime during her fourth year and then her mother had gone after him. Charity and Fideline had thought nothing of it. Neither her mother nor uncle came home alive.

Charity had felt guilty for not really feeling sad for Mother's demise but for years later had not thought too much about it. She shook her head and pushed this to the back of her mind. "So you're saying my ambition is to be the greatest con artist in Britain? More cunning than smart?" she replied instead and Fideline giggled. "What if, what if I go to Hufflepuff?"

"You won't," Fideline answered in a tone that suggested finality. Then something out the window seemed to catch her eye and the older girl was suddenly a flurry of activity, packing away bits and pieces into her trunk. Charity also glanced outside but all she saw was darkness. The train was also beginning to slow down… Which could only mean –

"We're almost there, you really should get changed now," Fideline told her, now busily fixing her hair rather distractedly.

 _Oh no! I can't do this!_ Charity could not possibly just step back into her childhood so easily. Sitting on the train with her sister was one thing, but actually going through her school years again? No way! And how was she supposed to cope with the knowledge that some of her classmates will die, some as blood traitors and some as Death Eaters, or how to behave with the witches and wizards she had taught alongside with for so long. She groaned in despair as she recalled another issue – school had been, as the muggles put it, the crap cherry atop the crap sundae that had been her adolescence, and she certainly did not remember anything she had learned from the first time around.

"Charity!" Fideline hissed, waving her hand right in front of Charity's face. The girl was jerked out of her panicked thoughts, and she wilted under her sister's glare.

"For Merlin's sake, pull yourself together and get changed! We've finally arrived." Sure enough, there were the sounds of people noisily moving about outside their compartment. Numbly, Charity pulled off the old robe and untidily folded it. She didn't have anything other than her oldest shorts and t-shirt on, as Fideline hadn't yet outgrown her nicer clothes. For an absurd moment she hoped the _Levicorpus_ spell wasn't in fashion yet. She barely managed to avoid being crushed by her trunk, an even more battered item that also once belonged to her sister, but at least she got out her school robe (the only item that was new) and pulled it on. It felt weird to be wearing robes again. When she was teaching she had dispensed with robes altogether and proper muggle clothes were much more comfortable anyway.

Suddenly the door slid open and Charity's stomach dropped. Panic bubbled up in the space that her stomach once occupied. A fifteen year old Narcissa Malfoy – no, Black – stood in the threshold. The last time she had seen Narcissa, the woman had looked worn down and frightened, and she had kept her eyes away from Charity at those last moments. And just behind her – "Argh, Narcissa, what are we doing? Everyone else is getting off the train!"

Behind her stood a boy with shiny curly dark hair and a bored expression. It was Regulus Black.


	3. Into the Boats

**Professor Burbage and the Great Do-Over**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series, the characters of the series... or anything really.** **Also, this is very much unbeta'd so at least I own my mistakes.**

* * *

 **Into the Boats**

 _Charity and Regulus were comparing their Chocolate Frog cards (she got two Merlins, and he had gotten Morgana and Agrippa) when the train began to slow down. Regulus leapt up to look out the window. "I think we're there!" he told Charity excitedly. They shared a grin but then his face fell. "I'm nervous," he admitted. "My parents and Sirius refused to tell me how the Sorting goes… andwhatifI'mnotinSlytherinandendupinGryffindorlikeSiriusmyparentswillbesodisappointed!"_

" _Hey, hey, hey, now!" Charity grabbed his shoulders. "You'll definitely get in Slytherin!"_

 _Regulus inhaled deeply and finally calmed down, and Charity dropped her hands and began readying herself too. Regulus' face was a bit pale and seemed to grow paler with each student that bustled past their compartment. She barely knew him but he had already shared his fear of going against his parents' expectations and while Charity honestly did not understand the obsession with Houses, as her mother most certainly didn't hold with such ideas, for Regulus' sake she kept the opinion to herself._

 _Eventually the train stopped moving altogether. They had arrived but they had to wait for Narcissa Black and Fideline to retrieve them, which they did after most of the students had gotten off the train. Barely moments after their little group had disembarked, the two witches immediately were swallowed up by the swirling crowd and it was only a miracle that Charity and Regulus had not been separated. They stuck close together, completely still against the swarming students until a sympathetic second year with the reddest hair and greenest eyes Charity had ever seen helpfully pushed them toward a huge man. A quick headcount later and the first years were introduced to Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts._

 _He herded them toward the Lake towards some clearly not-seaworthy boats. The first years gawked apprehensively at them._

" _Righ'," Hagrid boomed jovially. "Into the boats with ya lot!"_

* * *

Charity blinked rapidly in surprise. Here before her eyes stood her best friend, who had been so sweet and polite, even to house elves, only to then turn around and join the Death Eaters' ranks. Even as a Death Eater he had been quiet about it - she didn't even find out he was one until after he disappeared. It had taken her a very long time to get over how blind she must have been to have missed the signs. _Dear Merlin._ Charity realized that the scene now was different to what happened when she really had been a first year – at the time, she and Regulus had shared this very compartment as Fideline had gone to Narcissa Black's compartment and the two girls had sent the younger boy to keep Charity company. Surprisingly they had gotten along quite well. Their friendship endured even when she went to Hufflepuff and he went to Slytherin. Then she went off to study muggles while he lived the life of a pureblood heir, and apparently as a Death Eater. Letters never hinted at his loyalties and she was too immersed in her studies to visit… if she had only been closer, maybe she could have kept him from the path.

In real time, Fideline practically launched out of her seat to embrace her best friend and Narcissa laughed happily. The two girls swept out into the corridor, and the two first years hurried to catch up.

"Fidele, why didn't you come up to the first compartment? Old Sluggy was there and he was asking about you," Narcissa pouted, and Fideline laughed.

"Sorry, Cissy. I had to stay with my sister on her first trip on the train," she replied, waving a hand casually in Charity's direction. "But who's the twerp you dragged along?" At her words Regulus pulled a face, twisting the features that would grow to be quite handsome when he's older.

"He's my cousin, a first year too," Narcissa answered carelessly. Regulus gave them a brief nod with a bored look on his face but he faltered when Charity smiled warmly at him. Once they made it to the platform, Fideline and Narcissa were swallowed up by the swirling crowd and it was only a miracle that Charity and Regulus had not been separated. If anything, the boy seemed to have abandoned his haughtiness in favor of sticking to Charity's side as if he had been applied there with a Sticking Charm. A wonderfully familiar voice rang out over the hubbub, "Firs' years! Firs' years, over 'ere!"

Grinning wide, Charity grabbed Regulus' hand and began dragging him along, pushing past the older and taller students towards Hagrid. Thankfully, the boy was cowed enough not to protest. Eventually the entire lot of first years was huddled around the half-giant. A quick head count and introduction later, Hagrid herded them toward the Lake, and all the children, save for Charity, gaped apprehensively at the boats.

"Righ'," Hagrid boomed jovially. "Into the boats with ya lot!"

* * *

 **Reviews are love and the magic of love is the one thing Voldemort cannot understand.**


	4. And Then the Sorting Hat Bellowed

**Professor Burbage and the Great Do-Over**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series, the characters of the series... or anything really.** **Also, this is very much unbeta'd so at least I own my mistakes.**

* * *

 **And Then the Sorting Hat Bellowed**

 _A short, pudgy faced girl walked toward the stool and the Sorting Hat with the pace of a condemned prisoner approaching the firing squad. She sat on the stool, wringing her hands nervously. She briefly caught sight of the excited expressions of Fideline and Regulus at the Slytherin table just as Professor McGonagall dropped the Hat on her head, plunging her into darkness. Her nose wrinkled at the rather musty smell, surprisingly a lot like her Uncle Wulfric does when he finally emerges from his "study" after being shut up for a few days. How on earth was this going to sort her?_

" _Ahhh, weren't paying attention to my song, were you?" a voice suddenly said. Charity flinched and the voice apologized rather sarcastically for startling her. She still felt silly for forgetting so quickly that the Hat had just sung the virtues of the four Houses, while she had been busy looking up the fascinating enchanted ceiling. "My, my, my, you want to go to Slytherin because your friend and sister are there. Hmmm, you are loyal to your friends, even ones you have just met, and you may do anything for them, but I do not sense a Slytherin's burning ambition from you." Charity's hands clenched tight. She did so have ambitions – she wanted to live a good life where she didn't have to wear Fideline's old clothes and Mum can sit back and not worry about where the next galleon will come from. Then again, Mum's new job wasn't too bad and her uncle seems to be mellower nowadays. And Mum knew spells to adjust clothes so maybe the hand-me-downs were not so bad. The Hat added, "You have the potential but alas, potential is not enough if the drive is not there." But she had always thought she would be in her sister's house, how can she go to another?_

" _There is nothing wrong with going to another house if it was where you belonged," the Hat told her._

 _Well, if the Hat thought so. "Eh, fair enough," Charity agreed, shrugging._

" _Definitely not Slytherin then," The Hat chuckled. "Ah, looks like you belong in…" There was barely a beat before the Hat bellowed, "HUFFLEPUFF!"_

 _Beaming, Charity pulled it off and slid off the stool. A table to the far end of the hall, the total opposite of Slytherin's table, began clapping and cheering. Before she moved, Charity glanced at the Slytherin table. With a lopsided smile, Regulus held up a gold cup in salute, ignoring the sneering older boys beside him. Fideline's blue eyes were cold, and then she turned away to chat with Narcissa Black._

* * *

Charity stared up at the ceiling of the Great Hall, taking in the clouds that drifted lazily by the moon, and the thousands of floating candles that never once dripped wax onto the students below. She stood in the middle of the crowd of first years, just as nervous as they were, but not for the same reason. After all, she went to Hufflepuff first time around and she was certain it will be the same this time too. What she was nervous about was what the Hat will see in her head. It'll definitely know that she wasn't really a child, and might even raise alarm.

Regulus had scoffed at the fact that she preferred Hufflepuff over Slytherin on the boat but at least he wasn't too hung up on it, like Fideline had been. Charity frowned. Was that the first crack in the sisters' relationship? Maybe she should try harder to keep their relationship despite the difference in Houses?

"Black, Regulus," Minerva's – no, _Professor McGonagall_ called, and Regulus took a deep shuddering breath. They were not as fast friends now but Charity felt she had to say something reassuring to him.

She leaned toward him and gently nudged his side. "You'll definitely be in Slytherin," she whispered and she received a grateful chuckle from the boy. He was more confident as he went up.

As expected, the Hat called out Slytherin and Regulus seemed to heave a sigh of relief as he whipped the hat off and swaggered along to join his new house. But as he passed the Gryffindor table there rose up a chorus of boos and hisses, notably from where the older students were seated. Regulus' confident stride faltered and he drew in on himself, looking even smaller, as he hurried to the safety of his House table. McGonagall called for silence with a glare toward her House and continued the Sorting.

"That was mean," a girl standing behind Charity whispered to another girl.

"That was Gryffindor," the other girl replied snootily and she was called up too. She went to Gryffindor.

Finally… "Burbage, Charity."

It was the same process as the first time – the Hat covered her eyes, the musty smell filled her nose, Fideline and Regulus wore expectant looks on their faces.

" _Ahhh, what a fascinating mind I see here,"_ the familiar voice of the Sorting Hat drifted through Charity's mind. She recalled Severus, so long ago, telling her that the Hat employed a strange and unique form of Legilimency… Is it looking through her memories now, all of them, even the ones a child should definitely not have? Was it passing judgment on her?

" _I see a much more mature mind than your average eleven year olds and I can see your resolve to change this life for the better."_ The Hat chuckled, as it answered her unspoken question. _"You have knowledge, and you can do great things with it and be able to protect those you are loyal to."_ But would she be able to?

" _You must be sharper with your wits if you don't want to cause… irreversible damages. And I do believe I know just where you can learn that. Better be…"_

There was a sort pause, and then the Sorting Hat bellowed, _"SLYTHERIN!"_

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 **A/N If you like this story, please drop a review.**


	5. The First Day

**Professor Burbage and the Great Do-Over**

 **A/N And the chapter bomb has been dropped. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series, the characters of the series... or anything really.** **Also, this is very much unbeta'd so at least I own my mistakes.**

* * *

 **The First Day**

" _And how did you lot find your first night here?" asked a blond, round faced seventh year prefect named Alice Cassoway. The first years paused in their dishing of breakfast, looking at each other to see who will respond. At last, a sandy haired boy sitting across from Charity, Dirk Cresswell, answered with a cheerful, "Bloody amazing!" While the other first years nodded and grinned in agreement, Charity could only manage a tired smile and she stared down at her porridge. She did not find her night bloody amazing at all. That icy expression on Fideline's face had kept appearing each time she shut her eyes and her stomach had been all twisted up with worry over what that could mean. Sleep was impossible. In the end Charity had given it up and lay in bed until the alarm clock one of the Muggleborn girls brought rang._

 _The chatter around her seemed to wash over her and no one noticed her playing absently with her cold porridge. She did not even look up at the large parliament of owls that swept down with letters and packages. Not like Mother will send a letter anyway._

 _When it appeared that breakfast was over, Charity got up and slipped away._ Maybe I can catch Fideline or Regulus, _she thought. As she left, she overheard Alice Cassoway enthusiastically telling the remaining first years, "You're gonna love it here!"_

 _She smiled. It was still the first day; maybe she will love it here._

* * *

"Alright, boys' dorms are on the left and girls are to the right," said the prefect, waving a hand toward the stone stairs that led further down. "Tomorrow's Saturday, but breakfast starts six o'clock and ends by half eight." She grinned and waved the first years off as if she was shooing owls. "Now off to bed with you lot!" However they made no moves to obey, unabashedly staring around the Slytherin common room instead. Charity was amazed in particular. She had never realized how _cozy_ this place was (not that she had ever known what it looked like). It was not at all like the Hufflepuff common room, but the low stone room had its own gothic coziness with a roaring fire in the elaborately carved fireplace, the carved armchairs and bright green lamps that hung from the ceiling. Then her eyes fell on the painting above the fireplace and all ideas of Slytherin coziness flew out her head. A large snake lay coiled in its frame, its unblinking eyes bearing down at the newcomers and a thick forked tongue jabbed out as if it could taste their scent through the paint. Charity shuddered at the remembrance of another large serpent. Morosely she wondered if that… _thing_ ended up eating her body once she was dead.

An eleven year old Rabastan Lestrange, as thin now as he would be in the future, suddenly let out a huge yawn and the spell on the children was broken. Laughing and stretching, the boys trooped loudly to their dormitory. At the top of the stairs Regulus turned around and saluted Charity with a grin. Belatedly Charity grinned back timidly but he had already disappeared down the steps. She was eventually the only one of the lot left, and while she would have liked to run away to the comforts of the Hufflepuff common room, as she always had even as a teacher, now she chose to take a deep steadying breath and turn toward the steps leading down to the girls' dorms.

The next morning, Charity awoke feeling the most refreshed she had ever been. She had been anticipating a sleepless night, but the gentle swishing of water at the windows had been wonderfully soothing, and she had been lulled into a deep sleep. She lay staring up at the deep green canopy, her arms behind her head, and pondered her situation. In her mind, it had only been a week since she wrote that article, about three days since she was kidnapped from her home by Death Eaters, and barely over 24 hours since she was murdered. _And then I woke up on the Hogwarts Express, missed out on meeting my best friend, and then I was sorted into Slytherin with some of the very people who kidnapped me._

It was still difficult to believe. "It's 1972 and I'm a Hogwarts student in Slytherin," she said aloud.

"Must you really state the obvious?" a voice suddenly came from beyond the curtain. Charity yelped and nearly strangled herself with the bed curtains as she yanked them open. An eleven year old Aurora Sinistra, already dressed and packing her school bag at the foot of her own bed, looked away dismissively. Charity blinked owlishly as the world beyond Aurora appeared blurry, until she remembered that this was 1972 and Hogwarts student Charity was extremely shortsighted.

As she fumbled around her bedside table for her glasses, Charity pondered now her new housemates. She had been most surprised to find out that the future Astronomy professor was in her year, since she could not recall ever seeing the girl up close in classes before; even as a teacher, Professor Sinistra preferred her tower at all times. As for the boys, well the only ones she knew of were Regulus and Rabastan Lestrange, the latter being the most unpleasant boy she had ever come across. Even Regulus barely liked him, and only tolerated him because his cousin was married to Lestrange's brother.

Pulling the horrendous glasses on, she snuck a glance at the two four posters across from hers and Aurora's. They belonged to Maraia Bloomsbury and Katrina Yaxley, who had been attached at the hip in Charity's previous life, and had made it their personal goal to make her Hogwarts life as miserable as possible. It had not mattered that she was pureblood; the fact she came from a poor family, was a Hufflepuff, and dared to be friends with a member of the Sacred Twenty-Eight to boot had been reasons enough.

The beds were empty, clearly meaning that Charity was the last to wake.

After a quick bath and a battle to tame her hair, she hurriedly pulled on her robes and rushed out of the dormitory. She found the rest of the first years milling about in the common room. Regulus stood apart from them, hovering by the stone wall that served as the entrance, so Charity made her way toward him.

"Good morning!" she chirped. It was a forced cheer but since she missed out on meeting the boy who would be her best friend on the train, she would make it up to him. He smiled pleasantly as he returned the greeting.

"So what's going on here?" she asked, casting a curious glance at the aimless group. "Why isn't anyone in the Great Hall yet?" At her question, Regulus' expression turned sheepish.

"Well," he began. "We don't know how to get to the Great Hall from here." Charity blinked. There were several older students dotted here and there around the common room, fifth years and seventh years by the looks of them; in Hufflepuff, a least one prefect, whether they were fifth, sixth or seventh year, had to be on hand to guide the first years down to the Great Hall for meals and to classes for a few days until they were able to navigate the labyrinth dungeons on their own. Absently, she wondered if Snape had implemented such a policy when he was Head of Slytherin before shaking her head violently. Regulus apparently caught her looking because he then added, "I've already tried asking, but they seem… busy." A second look told her exactly what he meant; these students apparently sacrificing their breakfast time of the first weekend must be OWLs or NEWTs levels, and already there was an oppressive air about them, which was making the first years nervous. _Yet another thing different from Hufflepuff,_ she huffed silently _._ Studying was good and all, but it is nothing if you collapse from lack of food or sleep.

Seeing that there really was no one else to turn to, Charity sighed. "Oh, come on then," she said, turning to the stone door hidden in the seemingly blank wall, which obligingly slid open. But while she really did not know how to get directly from the Slytherin common room to the Great Hall, she did know of a passage that let out into the corridor near the Hufflepuff entrance. And the route from point Hufflepuff to point Great Hall was one she did know.

She heard scampering footfalls from behind and she knew they were following, even though Maraia Bloomsbury was loudly wondering in that high nasal voice what she could possibly know of the dungeons and that she was certainly going to get them lost. Charity had to grit her teeth; whatever the circumstances are, she was still the adult and the contempt of children should not have the power to shake her.

Unlike the Slytherins, there were several Hufflepuffs, fifth years and above, just making their journey to breakfast. The little group of Slytherins, obviously out of place, attracted looks of bemused surprise and outright suspicion all the way to the Great Hall.

"Excellent!" Regulus said once the great doors of the Hall came into view. "I can't believe you managed to find the Great Hall on the first try!" Charity smiled blithely behind him. Really, if there was one thing all former Hogwarts students remembered it was how to get from their common rooms to the Great Hall for meals. She hurried in the direction of a space beside Regulus when suddenly someone roughly bumped her from behind, hard enough to send her falling forward. She stopped herself in time, although her glasses still slipped off her nose.

"Well done, Burbage," Maraia Bloomsbury said with a nasty smirk, flipping her light brown curls. "But if you want to be in Hufflepuff so bad, you should just go join them, and not make us go through that humiliation again."

"At least it looks like you've some talent as a human compass. Those duffers looked like they need it," Katrina Yaxley added scornfully as they passed her. Clearly their treatment of her would not change even if they are in the same House now. _They're just children, ignore them,_ she reminded herself. So instead of freaking out and taking points (the way she had embarrassingly done during her first year of teaching), Charity instead replied drily, rolling her eyes "Oh wow, it looks like you have a talent for comedy." Bloomsbury and Yaxley ignored her and moved into the space where she had wanted to sit, and she silently groaned. They were snickering, no doubt about how graceful Charity had been in her almost fall.

Abruptly she felt hands grip her shoulders and jerking her head back she got a face full of swirling blonde curls. "Good morning, little sister!" Fideline said cheerfully and Charity stiffened. Fideline had never once greeted her sister so eagerly. Her grip on Charity's shoulders was painfully strong. "Oh! Are these your friends?" she asked, nodding toward Bloomsbury and Yaxley and Charity noted with satisfaction that their eyes were almost bulging out of their sockets. Whatever face her sister was wearing, it obviously put those two in their place. Charity shrugged, or as much as she could with Fideline's talons digging into her shoulders.

Satisfied, Fideline nodded dismissively. "Come sit with us," she said, and without giving her sister a choice, she dragged a dismayed Charity away from the first years and plopped her amidst the other fourth years further down the table. They gave her a cursory once-over, making surprised noises and remarks ("I say, you don't look at all alike!"), and then went back to their breakfasts.

"You really should try a bit harder to make friends," Fideline said, once she sat herself next to Charity. "Girls from respectable families can make good allies, after all."

"And how do you expect me to be friends with stuck up rich br –"

"Girls like that want a target," Fideline interrupted. "Someone to mock in order to feel better about themselves. I've no doubt once you are in the privacy of the dorm, they'll try to do something to you."

Alarmed, Charity shook her head. "No way!"

"What?"

"You're saying I should make friends with girls who bully others! Am I supposed to make myself one of them or something?"

"Exactly!" Fideline said approvingly, pulling a toast rack toward her. "Fear not, once you get the hang of it, you'll find doors open for you as readily as if you were one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight and no one will be able to hurt you. It just takes a bit of confidence." And with that, Fideline turned away to jump into another conversation. Charity chewed her lip thoughtfully. If she understood her sister correctly, she should not be a target… which probably would not help if Bloomsbury and Yaxley really disliked her enough. Her gaze wandered down the table to where the first years were sitting. Aurora sat a little off by herself with a large book propped up on a milk jug. Further up, Regulus was laughing with Rabastan Lestrange. Bloomsbury and Yaxley were also leaning in, occasionally adding to whatever conversation they had going. Regulus must have felt her gaze, because he caught her eye and smiled shyly, before returning his attention to Lestrange. It made her feel just a little bit better. Regulus had not become friends with her because she was like the Slytherin girls; he had been friends with her because he did not have to act like the perfect pureblood all the time.

Maraia Bloomsbury caught her eye, and sneered maliciously. Charity decided it would be high time to place some guard wards around her bed when she got back to the dormitory.

Since there really was nothing to do but listen to her sister flirt and playfully condescend on one side and the third years making plans for their Hogsmeade trip on the other, she sandwiched some bacon in toast, wrapped it up in a napkin, and slipped away from the table.

As she turned however, she caught sight of the Hufflepuff table on the opposite end of the Hall. Alice Cassoway was waving her hands about, enthusiastically talking with the Hufflepuff first years. Just as the large parliament of owls swooped in, bearing letters, Daily Prophets, or care packages, Charity left the Great Hall.

 _It's just the first day,_ she thought. _I've got time._

* * *

 **A/N Sorry for the long wait! Chapter 5 had gone through several rewrites but now it's finally done! Also, I messed up with Narcissa's age; according to the Harry Potter Lexicon, she would have been a seventh year or had already left in 1972. In chapter 2 I wrote her as being a fourth year like Fideline so I'll probably change that later. From now on, let's assume Fideline is just really good at making friends with the right people in any age group, like a real Slytherin.**

 **So if you followed the update on my YouTube channel, you'll remember I said that chapter 5 was the difficult one and 6 and 7 were all good… turns out that I misjudged the story and it wanted more changes than I originally thought. So it took a long while to figure out how I was going to write all that in, but in the end I like what came out of it and I hope you did too.**

 **Please leave a review, it would be great to read what you, the lovely readers, liked or didn't like about this story.**


	6. Really Should Have Known Better

**Professor Burbage and the Great Do-Over**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series, the characters of the series... or anything really.** **Also, this is very much unbeta'd so at least I own any mistakes.**

* * *

 **Really Should Have Known Better**

" _LEAVE HIM ALONE!"_

 _Regulus dropped his books and Charity glared at the direction the scream, now mixed with some other commotion, came from._

" _Sweet Merlin, there's just absolutely no place to study here," she groused, in a bad mood. Honestly, for a school with a nationwide renown for academic excellence there were surprisingly few places to study in peace. They could not go to each other's common room, as that apparently was just not done, and the library was not remotely as quiet as it should be. Any little nooks and crannies and alcoves seemed to be reserved for fifth years, seventh years or snogging couples. And every time Regulus and Charity did find a place to study, they would immediately get chased off by older students. While Regulus did not actually need to study (he breezed through classes as if he had the entire syllabus stuffed in his head), Charity was, as Cresswell put it, in the doghouse with the teachers for her poor performance in spell casting and late homework. In her defense, it is rather difficult to study when her textbook was possibly fifty years out of date and falling apart, and her wand seemed to hate her._

 _Being a first year sucked Cockroach Clusters._

" _Maybe we should find another place?" Regulus suggested, and for lack of any other ideas Charity agreed. She immediately regretted it when she spotted Bloomsbury and Yaxley giggling together as they walked towards their corner. Before the Tiresome Twosome (as Regulus had dubbed the two irritants) could find them, Charity pushed Regulus back into a tapestry… only to fall right through it and into the middle of what looked like a serious battle between three boys – jets of light flew all over the place and blasting bits of stone from the walls. The two first years scurried to take cover behind a chuckling suit of armor._

" _So much for finding a new place to study," Regulus muttered anxiously, and flinched as a spell struck the ground next to them._

" _We're completely cornered," Charity replied tersely. When the armor's helmet was blasted off, she hoped fervently that the rest of the suit could hold up._

" _POTTER! BLACK! JUST SHOVE OFF THE PAIR OF YOU!" a girl suddenly screamed and the spell casting immediately stopped. They peered around the armor to see a red haired girl screeching at a bespectacled, messy haired boy and another with familiar curly dark hair. A shorter boy with incredibly shiny but limp hair and wearing the Slytherin robes was clutching his wrist and glaring at the boys from behind the girl._

" _Sirius!" Regulus said, sighing heavily._

" _Yes it does look rather serious," Charity retorted._

" _No, I mean, that's my brother, Sirius," Regulus shot back, nodding toward the smirking curly haired boy. "I should have known he'd be doing something like this."_

Ah, so that's Sirius Black, _she mused, studying the boy. She did not think he looked like much, rather more like a spoilt meaner version of Regulus. Regulus had told her about him when they met on the train but never mentioned him afterward, and she figured it must be that House rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor._

"Come on _, I want to get away from here!" Regulus said, urgently tugging on her sleeve._ _He had a look of anxiety on his face that she had to allow him to drag her away._

* * *

Charity had kept her eyes peeled for anything suspicious, not wanting to give Bloomsbury and her lackey Yaxley a chance to do anything to her. They seemed to be ignoring her anyway, preferring to talk with a cousin of Bloomsbury in the common room. When Sunday rolled around and no misfortune had befallen her, she began to relax her guard. she really should have known better.

What happened was that Charity went to sleep on Sunday with a full head of hair, and woke up on Monday with a full head of hedgehog quills.

So instead of sitting in Charms that morning, Charity was sitting on her bed hidden by the curtains, trying to transfigure the quills back into hair. The only good thing that came out of it was the discovery that her adult skills were intact, her usually temperamental wand responding brilliantly. But whatever the spell that her hair was under was complex enough that a simple _finite_ could not dispel it, nor too could _finite incantatem_. With no other spells to fix it, she had to cast a revealing spell, which at least told her that some sort of Transfiguration spell had been used.

"This is so bloody stupid!" she groaned. She wanted to kick something, preferably the backsides of the girls who did this and whomever they got to help them, and then headbutt them. _No, no, I am the adult here! I will not resort to violence against children!_ Nonetheless she had to keep repeating the words under her breath until she calmed down enough to think.

The only person she could think of was Minerva McGonagall. The Slytherins had Transfiguration after lunch, so her best bet would be to sneak into the classroom before everyone else and ask for McGonagall's help, knowing the old witch would be there early anyway.

The trek to the first floor had been harrowing, as she had to keep ducking into alcoves and behind statues to avoid the groups of students roaming the dungeons. She was less lucky when that bloody poltergeist Peeves had found her and tried to snatch her hat off her head – when he couldn't he settled for pulling faces and calling her awful names while following her, only fleeing when the Bloody Baron drifted by. The lunch smells from the Great Hall had almost done her in, her stomach loudly reminding her that she had missed breakfast.

Charity only began to breathe again once she slipped into the Transfiguration classroom to find it blessedly empty – her heart stopped when she realized that she was not in fact alone. Seated in the front row was Regulus Black, his nose buried in the Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection. _Damn it!_ And McGonagall was nowhere to be seen. _Double damn it!_ She tugged her hat down, and winced as the quills snagged and tore at the material. Regulus started at the sound of ripping, and turned around.

"Oh!" he said, sounding surprised. "You didn't come to Charms and History of Magic." His eyebrows rose as he took in the hat she knew was sitting at a strange angle on her quill hair. "And why're you wearing a hat?"

"Umm… I wasn't feeling well. And I, uh, I just wanted to talk to Min – er, Professor McGonagall," she stammered, looking past him. One dark eyebrow crooked as he skeptically studied her.

"Would that have anything to do with the spell Bloomsbury got her cousin to put on you?"

"W-what!?" she sputtered. "How did – ?"

He shrugged. "She was boasting about it at breakfast this morning," he explained. "She didn't say what was done though." Charity groaned. This was even worse than when she had really been a child, at least she had been in a different house from those two, and Hufflepuffs were not prone to retaliation pranks.

He eyed her, the oddly positioned hat in particular, curiously, before asking, "So, what did she do?" In her previous life, Charity would not have hesitated to rant about what had been done to her, but that was in a time when she did let her sister go to Narcissa on the train and she and Regulus had met then. In this new… whatever-it-was, she has not had the chance to do anything since he spent most of the weekend with the other Slytherin boys. But she really, really wanted to tell him, it has been too long since she had his friendship.

"She turned my hair into quills," she said, whipping the hat off. Regulus stared… and to her dismay he burst out laughing. Her eyes widened, and she felt prickling in the corner of her eyes. She jammed the hat back on, spun on her heel and raced out into the corridor. She only made it to the top of the stairs, her legs aching but at least she could no longer hear his laughter. Then she slouched against the stone wall and pressed her hands to her eyes. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" she berated herself. _How could I have been so stupid! Of course he was going to laugh._

What exactly was she expecting? Why was she even back in this year, there was nothing that would make her come back here by choice. So far, her new life has been a load of crap; she's in the house with some of the very people who will go on to do bad things, she's lost her best friend, and now she's cowering in the Transfiguration corridor with quills for hair. She bit back a sob.

"Burbage?"

She jumped. She had not even noticed Regulus's approach and seeing him standing there looking apologetic only made her wish he was gone. The last thing she wanted was for him to see her crying.

"Come for some more laughs, Black?" she snarled. The venom in her tone, which surprised even her, made him wince. He held up his hands in a conciliatory gesture.

"Please, calm down," he said. "I apologize for laughing. I didn't realize it would look like I was having a laugh at your expense." Maybe it was her glare because he started to look discomfited. "I… I've had a bit of a stressful morning too…"

Charity snorted. "How could your morning be any worse than _this_?" she asked, pointing at her mangled hat.

"Lestrange," he answered, scowling darkly. That was an understandable answer, but unless the brat had hexed Regulus in his sleep, made him miss his morning classes, and breakfast _and_ lunch, Regulus' morning was definitely not as bad as Charity's had been. His head drooped and he looked so sorry that Charity's hurt faded away.

The ringing of the bell signaled the end of lunch and cue for the halls to fill with students. She and Regulus hurried back to the Transfiguration classroom, just as Minerva McGonagall was counting out matchsticks at her desk.

Before Charity could utter a word, her former (or is it future?) colleague pointed her wand right at her face. Before she could panic and wonder if a Death Eater was masquerading as McGonagall, a curious sensation, feeling much like a large invisible hand smoothing down her hair, blossomed from her scalp. Just as quickly it ended and Charity's hat fell over her forehead, no longer pinned up by the quills. Another wave and her hat was patched up right as rain.

In that so familiar Scottish accent, she ordered, "Now off to your seats, the both of you." Just in time too, as the rest of the Slytherins trickled in.

Charity wasted no time in rushing to a seat in the very back of the class, as far away from the smirking Bloomsbury and Yaxley as she could.

"You know, now that I've seen your normal hair, I do believe the quills suited you better," Regulus whispered as he sat down beside her. Charity grinned and nudged him softly.

It seems she had her friend back.

* * *

A funny thing happened when the last week of October rolled around: Charity found herself truly settling into her new House. If there was one thing she had wanted more than anything when she really was eleven, it was for Fideline and Regulus to be as prominent in her life then as they were now. In that first life, there had been this undercurrent of resentment from the Slytherins if they saw her with Regulus, and she hardly ever saw her own sister except during the holidays. But ever since the hair quill incident, she could sit with Regulus during meal times without feeling like an intruder and their friendship soon became quite similar to what they had in that previous life. Occasionally Fideline would grace them with her presence, however, she seemed to have it in her head that Charity could do with some training in female ruthlessness and had enrolled seventh year Narcissa to contribute some pearls of wisdom. (Perhaps the fact that Fideline could even get a seventh year to do something for her was supposed to be the example. Charity was both touched and a little worried that the rumors of her sister in her adult life might be true after all.) Some of what Narcissa had to share was surprisingly helpful and there had been no further problems with Bloomsbury and Yaxley.

Classes were surprisingly better than she remembered, possibly because she retained her adult skill in spell casting (although years of assigning homework had diminished her ability to actually _do_ the homework). Filius – no, _Professor Flitwick_ had fallen off his pile of cushions in his excitement when she had successfully cast the Levitation Charm, and awarded her ten points; McGonagall gave her a thin smile when she turned her matchstick into a needle and gained ten points; even dear Pomona Sprout gave her a smile and twenty points for demonstrating the Fire-making spell on a Spikey Bush. It felt good to be praised by teachers and to actually gain points instead of losing them. She successfully ignored the nasty little voice that was her conscious whenever it whispered, "You're a cheat; a grown woman besting children." Ignoring it was getting easier and easier.

As for the Slytherins, if there were any older students with sympathies to You-Know-Who's cause at least they kept it discreet and away from the younger years. That did not seem to stop Lestrange from loudly proclaiming his distaste for everything Muggle, but he was the only one it seemed.

There was one person she was most surprised she has not met yet. Severus Snape, Potions Master and the Death Eater who had let her die, would have been a year above her at Hogwarts. She had never interacted with him when they were children but now they were in the same house where social interaction was inevitable… she was on the fence about him; she wanted to see Severus and yet wanted to keep avoiding him. Unlike Lestrange or second year Marius Avery or Narcissa's beloved Lucius Malfoy, she had actually worked alongside him for five years and she had thought they were friends, and she knew it might be so much more painful. Yet so far Severus Snape seemed to disappear into thin air whenever he left the common room. She eventually began to relax. She really should have known better.

The Slytherin and Gryffindor first years were combined for Potions class, which they usually had on Friday mornings, right after the second years. Charity and Regulus raced down after Charms and as they thudded down the stone stairs toward the dungeons they became aware of a loud commotion. Regulus pulled on Charity's sleeve and they slowed down.

When they turned the corner, they found a small group of Gryffindor boys facing off against a lone Slytherin boy. Her heart nearly stopped when she recognized the boy. It was Severus Snape.

* * *

 **A/N Here's to the magic of friendship! And a wild Severus has appeared!**


	7. Quite the Stunner

**Professor Burbage and the Great Do-Over**

 **Quite The Stunner**

 _For these first few weeks, Charity was close to declaring Hogwarts as the greatest letdown of her life. Classes would have been great, if it were not for snooty Ravenclaws constantly answering questions before anyone got the chance to; Gryffindors constantly disrupting class with loud laughter and chatter (except in Transfiguration apparently); and Slytherins constantly making snide comments about Hufflepuff… and about Charity in particular. She had already earned a weekend of detention and a loss of twenty points for decking that horrid Lestrange boy when the Hufflepuff and Slytherin first years found themselves walking to lunch_ together _, even though he had started it by shoving Cresswell and calling him a mudblood. Whatever the reason however, the Hufflepuffs were annoyed with her for the points loss. Alice even had to take her aside and lecture her on the use of Muggle violence and turning the other cheek._

 _At least her detention (scrubbing cauldrons for Professor Slughorn while he was hosting a Slug Club gathering) was made bearable when Regulus snuck in and entertained with her lurid descriptions of the hexes a second year student he had "hired" had put on the Lestrange's bed. He could not make it for the rest of her detentions but while it was boring, at least she knew that Lestrange had been punished._

 _When the Friday before Halloween finally rolled around, Charity was beside herself with excitement._ Finally, something good about this place! _Fideline had told her so much about how Hogwarts went all out for the occasion with live bats and the ghosts' synchronized flying and huge pumpkins and the Feast. Charity was not ashamed to admit it, but the Feast is what she was looking forward to the most. Candy_ and _food, all in one sitting! Who wouldn't be excited?_

 _Regulus had been amused and joked that she came to Hogwarts to learn, not to eat. For once, she smiled and laughed along. Because nothing could take away her anticipation. Charity definitely was looking forward to the weekend._

* * *

For as long as Charity knew him, Severus Snape was a rather ugly man. He was not really bad-looking but whatever ugliness that festered on the inside of most people seemed to have had manifested in his appearance. The angry, stringy slip of a child arguing with the healthier group of boys was almost unrecognizable as the self-assured Potions Master if it were not for the familiar limp, greasy hair and the hooked nose that was too big for his face.

"Sirius!" Regulus suddenly said in a fearful voice. Charity glanced sharply at him and then back at the group. Now that she looked closely, she could make out the boy with a striking resemblance to Regulus. Sirius Black was smirking at something the boy next to him was saying (it took a couple of blinks to assure Charity she was not looking at Harry Potter but at the boy who'd eventually be his father). Snape seemed to be engrossed completely in arguing with Potter that he did not notice Sirius raising his wand until the boy began to say his spell. But Charity did, and then she did something incredibly stupid. Her wand was raised before she even realized she had it in her hand.

" _STUPEFY!_ " she shouted, and a jet of red light shot out of her wand and hit its target. Sirius Black flew right over the boys' heads, and the remaining three Gryffindors swiveled around to gape at his landing. Severus on the other hand, started running towards her and waving frantically. He might have been shouting something too, but Charity was too stunned to hear it. _I just Stunned Sirius Black_ , she thought, panic beginning to bubble up.

"Bloody hell, Charity!" Regulus shouted. "What have you done!?" Charity was vaguely aware that he was pulling at her sleeve but she was frozen in place. Just what had she done? _I hexed Sirius Black, that's what I've done!_

Potter seemed to snap out of his trance and with a shout he began throwing spells. Charity thought it was rather unsporting to shoot at someone's back, but then a bright steam of light flew right past her glasses. Potter wasn't flinging Stunners at Snape, he was aiming at her!

Suddenly Snape was stopping and then he turned around! Potter clearly was so surprised by Snape's sudden about face that he stopped his attack, giving Snape the chance to throw his spells.

Snape was firing curses, some Charity was certain a normal twelve year old should not know, at machine-gun speed, leaving Potter unable to fire back when he had to dodge them. The other two boys, obviously the pre-werewolf Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, were edging away from the fight, dragging the unconscious Sirius Black with them. Charity and Regulus stood there staring at the two boys dueling, completely dumbfounded.

At last Snape hit Potter with a particularly nasty curse that made the boy scream and then bewilderingly start ripping his shoes off. Charity did not get to see what Snape's curse did as the boy himself grabbed her elbow, Regulus by the collar, and then dragged them off to some deeper part of the dungeons.

* * *

"What on earth were you _thinking_?!"

The three Slytherins sat with their heads bowed before Professor McGonagall's desk. After dragging Regulus and Charity to some deep part of the dungeons, Snape then seemed to change his mind and led them on a jaunt around the castle, which would have been fun if it had been their choice and had Snape not tersely informed them that Potter and company would retaliate if they ever caught up. They had all been exhausted from the continuous walking and paranoia when the future Mrs. Weasley, Molly Prewett, had found them skulking around the Charms corridor and marched them all straight to Professor McGonagall.

"Hexing two fellow students and skipping your classes… do you three realize what you've done?" McGonagall ranted.

Charity really wanted to answer, to tell McGonagall that the reason she hexed Sirius Black was to stop him from hexing Snape, but her former colleague did not seem to be in a listening state. Her mood was foul enough with Professor Slughorn being late.

At last there was a knock at the door and then Slughorn poked his head in. "Terribly sorry about being late," he declared jovially as he hefted his incredible bulk into the office. McGonagall was not impressed, her tone said as much as she explained the situation. Slughorn's cheery expression faded into a thoughtful one.

"That sounds quite serious Minerva," he said finally.

"Of course it is, Horace! Two of your students attacked two of mine with no provocation, and then they caused undue worrying for their professors when they failed to appear for their classes for the rest of the day! And Madam Pomfrey is still trying to restore Mr. Potter's toenails to a normal length."

"I'm sure they have good reason – "

"If they did, they have not volunteered it," the old woman growled.

Charity stared at her. "You didn't give us the chance – " she started to say but Slughorn spoke over her.

"And do you have a suitable punishment for them?" She had already taken thirty points each from Charity and Snape for the actual fighting and ten from Regulus for failing to prevent the whole thing. _What more punishment does she want?!_

McGonagall drummed her wand against her desk as she thought, her eyes flicking between Charity, Regulus and Snape. "Detention _every day_ for one week, effective from Saturday. And you shall serve it during dinner time."

Charity could not help it. "What?!" she burst out after a quick calculation. "But we'll miss the Halloween Feast on Tuesday!"

"That's not fair!" Severus added, a little more quietly. "Potter was throwing hexes at us too. And they were going to come after us." Regulus looked faintly ill. Charity opened her mouth again but McGonagall shot her a stern look.

"One more outburst from you, Miss Burbage, and it'll be another week. Is that clear." It was not a question and Charity had no choice but to nod mutely.

McGonagall dismissed them with a disapproving sniff and Slughorn led them out. Charity followed numbly, unable to process the unfairness of it all. McGonagall had always seemed impartial in her judgments but she had not even allowed them a chance to explain. Charity was so far in her wallowing that she did not notice that Slughorn had already brought them to the common room entrance. Regulus had to pull her sleeve (and Snape yanked her collar) to stop her from walking straight into the wall. Rubbing her throat, she glared at Snape and he glared back so fiercely that she lowered her gaze first.

Meanwhile, Professor Slughorn was looking at the three of them with a thoughtful air. Appearing to come to some sort of decision, he turned to Snape and inquired, "So may I ask as to why you stunned Mr. Black the Gryffindor, Mr. Snape?" Was it her or did Slughorn seem to be trying to keep a smile at bay?

Snape frowned and jerked his head irritably at Charity. "She did it, sir. I was simply having a… disagreement with Potter. The next thing I knew, Black was knocked out."

"And why did you do it, Miss Burbage?" he asked, surprised. It was obvious the old professor was having trouble believing that such a harmless looking first year was capable of starting a fight and she really could not blame him. She could not believe she had done it too.

"He was going to hex Snape, sir," she explained. "I saw him pulling his wand out while Snape was distracted with arguing with Potter."

"It's true, sir," Regulus added. "My brother was about to say a spell while his friend kept Snape occupied." Slughorn's eyebrows rose high up to his hairline. Clearly the word of a pureblood from a well-known family was enough to convince him.

"And you got him with a Stunning spell, yes?" She admitted that she used a Stunning spell and to her surprise, the Potions Master _smiled_. "Well, Minerva's already taken points from you two, but take twenty points to Slytherin, Miss Burbage." At their disbelieving expressions, Slughorn clarified, "For demonstrating exceptional house solidarity. And another twenty points to Mr. Snape, for excellent dueling." And with that he waddled off.

"Well… that happened," Regulus remarked airily. He and Charity glanced at each other and then burst out laughing. Snape stared at them with bewildered disbelief.

"Charity," Regulus managed to say before dissolving into giggles.

"Ye- yes?"

"Wha- what in Merlin just happened?"

"I stunned your brother, lost us almost sixty points, and then impressed Slughorn so much he awarded us more points! In a nutshell, I guess." Charity turned to Snape with a grin. "Am I right, Snape?" But this was Severus Snape – for the moment, she forgot about the past (or is it future) and was ready to make a new friend.

Snape barked the password to the wall. He shot them a disgusted look before stalking off to his customary armchair.

Charity could feel her face get warm at the snub but Regulus merely shrugged and grinned at Charity. "Well, he was amazing. Listen, Sirius is my brother, but that was quite the Stunner."

Charity really should not have done, a grown woman hexing a child, but in the face of his smile she could not help it. "Yeah, it really was."

* * *

 **A/N In 1972, Halloween fell on a Tuesday. As to why Charity thinks young Lupin here is "pre-werewolf", she doesn't know he has been a werewolf since he was little, she just thought he was bitten as an adult – 1972 was the year the Marauders found out he was a werewolf anyway.**

 **Please leave a review, it'll mean so much to me!**


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